The 2011 Girls’ Attitudes Survey by the Girl Guides has reported that financial uncertainty is shaping girls’ and young women’s career and academic aspirations. Continue reading “Girl guiding survey reports austerity impacting on UK girls’ education and career aspirations”
Are girls victims of their own sexual agency? Sexualisation, sexual violence and schooling
On the 15th October the End Violence Against Women (EVAW) organisation called upon the Coalition Government to urgently address the “alarming levels” of sexual harassment and violence against young women in schools. Their YouGov 2010 online survey of 788 16-18 year olds found that a third (29%) of young women reported unwanted sexual touching at school and witnessed routine sexual name-calling on a daily or twice-weekly basis. Over a quarter (28%) said they had seen sexual pictures on mobile phones at school twice a month or more. In the same month, Girl Guiding UK continued to fight the sexualisation of girl culture by delivering a 25,000 signature petition to Downing Street calling for the Government to introduce compulsory labelling for all airbrushed images. This concern addressed the findings from their Girls’ Attitudes Survey, in which 50% of the girls reported that they would consider having surgery to change their looks and more than half had been bullied for their appearance. Indeed, the impact of ‘sexualisation’ upon girls and young women has become the subject of high profile controversial reports and inquiries from a number of government and non-governmental bodies (Home Office 2010). Continue reading “Are girls victims of their own sexual agency? Sexualisation, sexual violence and schooling”